Separation: We're not the only ones who experience the pain of that chasm!

Separation.  This word came to me loud and clear Saturday evening during Holy Communion.  Last week was rough.  My dog was attacked by another dog and I’ve been a wreck trying to process it all.  My dog is okay, thankfully, he’s got a puncture wound in the back of his neck just above his shoulders, but my friend and I took him to the vet Saturday morning who cleaned out that wound and put him on some strong antibiotics and pain meds.  He’s currently dozing next to me on his bed as I write this.  My reaction to this whole situation wasn’t the kindest, and I’ve felt absolutely terrible about it, so I knew that I needed to go to Confession before I was able to be comfortable with receiving Holy Communion.  So, when our Lord was being administered to those of us in attendance, I quietly shook my head as one of the Eucharistic Ministers walked by where I was sitting, letting this person know I’m not receiving our Beloved Lord.  I needed to talk to Him first to apologize to Him for my actions.  As I was sitting there in my seat, I was crying and apologizing to my Jesus for how disgusting my response was to my dog’s attack and how I’d allowed my rage to take over rather than hand it to Him.

Answering a question about writing processes...

A Colleague of the Pen recently shared her writing process asked on social media about the rest of us writers she’s connected to: ‘What’s yours?’

I didn’t, honestly, think I had one until today. There are a few things I do that are a must for the words to flow out:

Let's talk about Lent!

I would like to talk about Lent just a little bit… Ash Wednesday is coming up, and I got to thinking I’d like to write a little bit about it… And without really any effort to look, I found my answer.

Recently, I read something that made me quite sad. Someone I know in a peripheral sense mentioned about becoming increasingly stressed out about ‘what to give up’ for Lent. Honestly… I reached out to this person and explained, ‘Hey, no, you’re going about this the wrong way!’

Now, understand, Reader, I am in no way perfect. I know, it’s a shock, isn’t it? But I tell you the truth, and this is going to be hard to understand for some: None of us are. Lent, though, shouldn’t be at all a stressful time! Preparing for it, during, or even Easter. It should be, honestly, a time of joy. We are preparing to meet our Beloved Lord in the desert. It’s a time to weed out those stumbling blocks that are causing us harm in our spiritual walks with Him.

When God Steps Back - What does this mean?

I subscribe to a rather neat newsletter, Friends of the Little Portion Hermitage. I like reading these so much, I save each one. Today’s title caught my eye and it gave me pause when I read it. ‘The Discipline of Darkness.’...

My Brain Goblins Ran Amok.

Ah, September, we meet again.

I don't really know how to explain it, but September and I are not really cool.  We're more... frienemies.  Stressing on the 'enemies' part of that word.  ;)

This year will be eight years - eight!) since my mental breakdown happened.  The last day I saw my little dog I had before I got Emily.  The ball that got rolling when I ended up moving back to Ohio.

I am a thought-hoarder.  For y'all who aren't familiar with the show 'Hoarders,' check out one episode. Just one.  Trust and believe, if you transpose whatever  the client on that episode's hoarding for thoughts, well, then you've got my brain pretty much right there on your screen.  I'm not even joking.

This year, I'm facing something I've taken a lot of time circling around, poking at it randomly with a stick, even attempted to set it ablaze a few times (only to have the fire put out by rains of depression and woe.  Gee thanks, brain.  Thanks a lot!  +grumble+).  This year, though... It's different in a few ways, but the one that I'm willing to discuss in this article...:

The Pros and Cons of Technology

Recently, my nephew (he’s in his mid-20s) and I were out adventuring around town (we ended up at Walmart, which seems always the ‘it’ place for my friends and me to end up when we’re bored haha), and on our way back, we were listening to music and we were talking about technology.

Self-improvement - what I'd like to work on...

Now,  I don't want this to come across as one of those 'self-help-y' posts, but ... I mean, let's be honest here.  I have two idea banks, and I couldn't decide on something to write about.  What's a writer to do?  Well, I grabbed a decent-sized handful of ideas I'd written on popsicle sticks and closed my eyes, shuffled them about and... this one was the one I grabbed.  So, here we are.

Bear with me.

Life isn't about having what we want, but appreciating what we already have!

I saw something earlier in my e-mail that prompted me to write this article.

The subject? It was about appreciating what we have. That gave me pause and I thought, 'Hm. I do that. I wonder how many others do, too?'

Comfort - not just something physical!

Hey, so I want to talk about comfort.  It comes in so many different forms, as we're all aware, and as a species, doesn't matter if it's animal, human, or even plant, comfort is a thing we all yearn for.

My dog, she's most comfortable wherever I am that she can touch me.  If we're sitting on the couch watching a movie, she's right next to me, right at my hip, usually under her blanket (she's a Dachshund, and Dachshunds are known burrow-dogs).  My cats, they're fairly comfortable wherever they decide to be.  Sometimes on my lap, sometimes on the back of the couch, my bed, wherever they feel like being that they know is within their permissible boundaries to be.

Personally, I'm comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt, barefoot, running around in the sunshine.  If it's cold, I'm happiest indoors, of course.  If I HAVE to go out, then I want a silly hat and usually, I can get by with a hoodie.

But, I didn't decide to write this about physical comfort.  No.  I want to talk about comfort that goes deeper than the surface.

Good-bye, 2018. You won't be missed. Not entirely.

I'm going to share something incredibly real and raw with you all.  I don't think being vulnerable is necessarily a BAD thing, but it is not something that I'M entirely comfortable with, so bear with me.

As 2018 comes to a close, I have done a LOT of reflection on how things went.  The ebb and flow of life, as a whole.

Being a rainbow when everything's black and white.

Recently, I had someone come to me and ask for advice on how to survive. Specifically, how to come ‘out’ to the family about their sexual orientation. This person has expressed concern about having been previously treated as a pariah, sending this person – not compassionately – to counseling as a way to ‘purge’ this information from this person.

This… is a delicate matter. There are a lot of people who don’t agree with this lifestyle, and there are a lot who do. It’s been a constant source of contention for many, many years, probably centuries. But, sticking with the modern era, and with some of the crusty old political types trying to force us back into the 1950s, well, I can see the concern as being quite valid.

Love hurts when it ends. But, why?

Love. There are varying definitions of that word, but I want to talk about romantic love, and specifically, why does it hurt so much when a relationship ends?

My niece asked me to try to answer this question. I told her I would do my best. I won’t go into the specifics behind her reason, but I will say that there’s not been one person I know who HASN’T gone through the blistering heartache of a breakup. We all have, regardless of how amicable (and in some cases, toxic) it was.

Alright, so here we go.

It's time we get serious about our fun, people.

Alright, boys and girls, let's take a moment to talk about a little something with big, serious, and weighty consequences.  Bullying.  Specifically, in this case, AUTHOR BULLYING.

No one likes to be picked on or attacked.  Growing up, as children we tested the proverbial waters of what is, and is not, socially alright.  Regardless of what isn't alright, though, sometimes there are those people who do cross the line and say or even do terrible things to their fellow humans for whatever ridiculous reason that drives them to ugly behaviour.  Bullying, in any form, is NOT alright.  PERIOD.

DIY MFA Prompt #2 - Honouring My Reality

This isn't an easy one, but it must be addressed.

Origins of a Word Nerd: My Story

Hello out there, readers!  I'm going to try a little something different for the next few weeks.  A lady whose blog I follow, DIY MFA, has started this really neat book club thing, and I'm going to use the prompts she shares as a jumping off point for blog posts (who knows what will evolve after that, am I right?).

The first one is how I got started writing.

Oh, Mr Orwell. Did you have to be like that?

It's only the 20th, and already I'm ready for the new year to begin!  I'm happy to say, though, that my 'writing everyday' has pretty much (mostly) been going well.  Whether it's my paper journal or a review of a book I'm reading, it's not been every day, but I've done a lot more lately than I had for awhile.

Before I sign out of writer-land for the night...

.... Okay, so it's almost 6a.  Shush.  Kinda hard to settle down right now with my Maine Coon stomping about the house complaining - loudly, at great length - about.... I don't even know what.  I don't think he knows what he's having a rant about.

Anyway, so before I shut down my mind for the night, I remembered (just now) that I wanted to share something big with you all.

Well, just before I opened this tab to write this, another little splendid thing came up, so I've got TWO things to share that are pretty exciting.

Seasons Greed-ings.

Good afternoon, everyone!

I promise I'm still around.  I had all my time and energy focused toward NaNoWriMo.  And now, here we are, the day after I nailed it with a final word count of 50,022 words.  That was spread out over several things, the bulk of it was my book, including edits, and a couple other projects.

Now, I am currently battling throat frogs and chest gremlins.  I have a cold.  It seemed to creep up last week and hit me full-force on Friday.  And now, I feel terrible.

O Death, Thou Detestable Maw!

Next to the post I just shared with you all, this is about to be one of the realest, most rawest (yes, that's a word because I said so) posts you're going to see from me.

Q&A With Morty!

Good afternoon, friendly reader! Today's interview is with Morty McKowsky. Morty* is 20 years old and from Jersey Shore, New Jersey. Morty is a rather unique individual. He showed up to our visit wearing Day-Glo orange pants, neon yellow shoes, and a rather loud Hawaiian shirt with pink and purple palm trees all over it. His hair was slicked back with Vaseline (he said it keeps it back the best, gel just wasn't doing it). I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure what to make of him. I'll let you decide.